Community Engaged Theatre Needs A Community Audience

With Dublin Fringe Festival almost upon us (5 - 22 September) and the hip Fringe crowd gearing up for a jam packed schedule there is a community engaged theatre company from Drogheda, Upstate Theatre Project, whose performance at the festival will have a resonance with community and voluntary organisations. They "would, genuinely, like community groups and organisations" to come and see their work as their entire history since their founding in 1997 has been "bringing local communities together with professional artists to create original works of art".

ABOUT THE SHOW Under the guidance of artist Feidlim Cannon (Brokentalkers), The Far Side sees seven proud Droghedeans develop a contemporary, living history. The video performance explores the social history of an Irish town through personal recollections of growing up and living there. The Far Side blends contemporary art-making with local, personal and popular heritage in a unique and unsentimental cocktail for the here and now. The global and the local collide through the prism of favourite TV shows, cinema and song celebrating a peoples' history of themselves. The performance is a real, sometimes surreal, re-presentation of stories, memories and reminiscences this group has shared with each other over the last two years.

ABOUT UPSTATEUpstate Theatre Project is a community-engaged performing arts organisation adhering to collective and collaborative approaches in keeping with principles of cultural democracy. Through our work we advocate for social change and challenge audience's pre-conceptions of who can shape the world around us.

Upstate Theatre Project and Feidlim Cannon (Brokentalkers) are programmed in the Light House Cinema for Dublin Fringe Festival this September with our collaborative community project THE FAR SIDE, and would like to use this as an opportunity to share our work with like-minded organisations and individuals.

We would love if you could attend THE FAR SIDE, and also invite you to meet with Upstate Theatre Project after the performance for coffee and a chat about our/your work.